Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Jackson, Mississippi

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The City of Jackson was originally known as LeFleur’s Bluff, named after the adventurous French-Canadian Louis LeFleur who explored the area in the 1700s. After the Treaty of Doak’s Stand in 1830, the Mississippi legislature designated the town as the state capital because of its central location, and the name of the newly recognized city was changed to Jackson in honor of General Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s economy was initially based on business related to its position as a steamboat port along the Pearl River, and eventually grew to include business from the railroad in the 1830s. Jewish settlers from Germany and Alsace-Lorraine began to arrive in the 1850s, lining downtown Jackson with a myriad of stores. Today, many of those businesses no longer exist, yet Jackson’s Jewish population has increased with growing number of migrants from other parts of the country, making it the largest Jewish community in Mississippi.

Early settlers: In the 1850s, a handful of German and Alsatian immigrants settled in Jackson. Early settlers included the Dreyfus family, who emigrated from France and started a dry goods store in 1854. Solomon Frey established a store in 1852. Isidore Strauss came to Jackson by 1854 with his wife. His younger brothers, Henry and Isaac, eventually settled in Jackson with him. H. Eisen established a jewelry store in 1860. Other early settlers included Lazarus Kahn, Aaron Lehman, and H. Goodman.

The Civil War:Because of its position as the state capital as well as a railroad center, Jackson played an important role during the Civil War. Jackson’s fortunes turned markedly worse in the spring of 1863. General Grant, after several thwarted attempts to reach Vicksburg, moved his Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg in late April and headed northward, intending to break the railroad between Jackson and Vicksburg. He quickly decided he had to neutralize Jackson as a Confederate base in order to protect his rear when he eventually went after Vicksburg. The city served as the capital of the Confederacy until it was besieged in 1863. Several Jackson Jews served as soldiers during the Civil War. For instance, Henry Strauss served during the entire four years of the Civil War with the Mississippi Rifles, the first company that left Jackson, Miss.

Reconstruction era Jackson:By 1865, Jackson rebuilt and resumed its position as the capital city. Although much of the city was destroyed during the Civil War, Jackson grew during the Reconstruction era and many Jackson Jews saw this period as an opportunity to buy cheap land. John Hart, formerly Hertz, was one of these gentlemen. In the 1850s, Hart started off as a poor immigrant earning $10 a month in a butcher shop. After serving in Company A of the 6th Mississippi Brigade in the Civil War, Hart invested in land to increase his wealth and eventually became the largest taxpayer of city property in Jackson. His brothers, Benjamin and Phillip Hart, left Germany to join him and together the Hart family started the J & B Hart Company in 1866. Joseph Ascher was also successful at real estate. Born in Alsace in 1855, he came to Jackson to live with his Hart relatives in order to find a better way of life. Beginning as a simple peddler, he ended up concluding his life as a real estate tycoon. Others like Isadore Dreyfus used land not only to make a fortune off his tenants but also to supplement his income from his successful insurance business. Elias Bloom was another successful real estate owner and merchant, who arrived in Jackson in 1858. In the 1860 census, he claimed to be worth about $2000. Following the Civil War, Bloom prospered as an auction merchant, eventually amassing $20,000 worth of real estate.

The formation of a community:The first Jewish organization in the city was founded in 1860, when local Jewish merchants bought land for a future Jewish cemetery on North State Street. The following year, fifteen families formally organized the Beth Israel congregation. Meeting in a one-story schoolhouse on South State Street, the group started the first Jewish day school in Mississippi at a time when state public schools were nonexistent. By 1862, they hired a hazzan, Mr. Oberndofer. In 1867, they acquired land on the corner of South State street and built a modest frame schoolhouse, which they also used as a synagogue, making them the first congregation in Mississippi to erect their own house of worship. The early years of the congregation were far from harmonious. Following the Civil War, Jewish immigrants from Poland clashed culturally with the earlier settled and assimilated German Jews. Things improved after the congregation hired their first Rabbi, Rev. L. Winter in 1870, who helped to heal the rifts. Still, congregational life was not without battles. For example, when one member’s young son died in 1870, the grieving father refused to follow traditional Jewish burial customs. The father buried his son in a Christian cemetery with a Methodist minister officiating the ceremony. Rev. Winter began to move the congregation towards Reform Judaism. Under his leadership, the congregation adopted Friday night services in place of Saturday services and held services in English. He rejected what he described as “antiquated prayers and ceremonies,” and called for the development of the inner feeling of Judaism. He also introduced the confirmation ceremony, a practice that was borrowed from Christianity but became a central ritual of American Reform Judaism. The congregation officially joined the Reform movement in 1875 and built a more permanent structure in 1874 after the schoolhouse burned down.

Jackson’s Jewish businesses: Jews enjoyed tremendous economic success in Jackson and were an important part of Jackson’s merchant class. At one time, Capitol Street was home to sixteen Jewish businesses. Families such as Strauss, Norman, Beck, Feibleman, Kahn, Bloom, Wolf, Lehman, Hatry, and Devy lived in the beautiful houses along State Street. Most of the Jewish owned businesses were clustered in downtown Jackson. The Horowitz family owned Mangel’s, and the Gordons owned a store named Vogue, which was located near Lefkowitz Jewelry and a farm supply store owned by the Ascher family. Other early Jewish businesses were Jake Ehrman’s meat market, which existed from 1890 to 1920, and August Hatry’s Jackson Transfer Company. In 1889, Moishe Cohen came to Jackson from Romania at the age of fifteen to join his brother, Sam, in the clothing business. They married two sisters, Eta and Nell, who were of no relation but shared the Cohen family name. Throughout their lives, the two couples lived peacefully in the same house on East Fortification Street. For almost a century, the Cohen Brothers clothing store served customers on Capitol Street. In the 1920s, Jackson’s leading department store was The Emporium owned by Simon Seelig Marks and located on the northeast corner streets of Congress and Capitol. Marks, married to Josephine Hyams of Jackson, was a member of the Kiwanis Club as well as director of the Mississippi Merchants Association and vice president of Jackson’s Chamber of Commerce. During the Great Depression, Marks was also the state director for the National Emergency Council. The Emporium itself sold any item one could imagine, including victory war bonds during World War II. Although the business has long since closed, the building was restored in 1988 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Jews were also involved in the apparel cleaning business. Near the turn of the century, Isidore Lehman began his career in Jackson as a shirt washer in a cart for a Memphis laundry company. His hard work and determination led him to eventually become a partner at Jackson Steam Laundry. Located on 730 State Street, Jackson Steam Laundry was known for the slogan, “When clothes are dirty, 730.” Lehman’s store not only cleaned clothes but also served as a bathhouse for people without running water. Lehman was very involved in Jackson’s civic affairs. He was president of many organizations including the Jackson and Mississippi Chamber of Commerce, Beth Israel synagogue, Hinds County Red Cross, and the local school board. His store stayed open until the 1960s and was demolished later in the 1970s. In 1924, Gardner and Kahn Cleaning Company opened in the Jackson area. Later, his wife took over Kahn Cleaning Company, which was located on Capital and S. Gallatin Streets until its closure in the 1980s.

Community Relations: a Rabbi’s RemembranceThe Jews of Jackson were very well integrated into the larger community. Rabbi Julian Feibelman, who served Temple Sinai in New Orleans for more than thirty years, spoke of a very accepting atmosphere in his hometown of Jackson at the turn of the century.Born toAbraham and Eva Feibelman in 1897, he spent his childhood and young adulthood in Jackson. He attended elementary and secondary school there as well as some of his higher education. He graduated from Millsaps College with the Bachelor of Arts, even though he had left school early to enlist in the army because of the American entry into World War I. His recollections reveal a new dimension of Mississippi: friendships across color lines, saying that young African Americans in Jackson looked upon the Jewish community as “their people.” There was no apparent social discrimination among the children. Nor did he remember his Jewish religion being the subject of discrimination because, “Whether it was Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, these children were my friends, and we all were together and their families were our friends. As a Jewish boy, I grew up in Jackson without the slightest tinge or taint of anything that would be called anti-Semitic.”

Jewish community involvement in Jackson:As businesspeople and civic leaders, the Jews of Jackson contributed much to their city. Most of them worked to assimilate into Southern culture, dropping the dietary laws and strict Shabbat observance. Newspapers marked many announcements of Jewish successes. Christian ministers, along with local and state political leaders took part in the Jewish community’s building dedications and other celebrations. Jewish residents were allowed into many clubs, including the Masons and the Odd Fellows. Sam Milstein, a successful merchant who ran Milstein’s Men and Ladies Department store, headed the NRA in Jackson during the 1930s. He also served as Colonel on the staff of Governor Wright and was one of the original organizers of the Jackson symphony orchestra. Isidore Dreyfus served as a charter member of the Jackson Kiwanis Club, the Masonic Order, and the Jackson country club.Other Jews who served the community included Joseph Ascher, who served on the Jackson school board. During the Great Depression, the Lehman family served breakfast to many hungry children who walked to the school across the street from the Lehman’s home. Their relatives, Aaron and Celestine Lehman, started a home for elderly women in Jackson, and Aaron was a faithful school board member. In recent years, Josh Wiener and Jonathan Larkin served on the Jackson School Board, expressing their commitment to public education at a time when most whites in the city have left for private schools.

Jewish community involvement in Jackson:As businesspeople and civic leaders, the Jews of Jackson contributed much to their city. Most of them worked to assimilate into Southern culture, dropping the dietary laws and strict Shabbat observance. Newspapers marked many announcements of Jewish successes. Christian ministers, along with local and state political leaders took part in the Jewish community’s building dedications and other celebrations. Jewish residents were allowed into many clubs, including the Masons and the Odd Fellows. Sam Milstein, a successful merchant who ran Milstein’s Men and Ladies Department store, headed the NRA in Jackson during the 1930s. He also served as Colonel on the staff of Governor Wright and was one of the original organizers of the Jackson symphony orchestra. Isidore Dreyfus served as a charter member of the Jackson Kiwanis Club, the Masonic Order, and the Jackson country club.Other Jews who served the community included Joseph Ascher, who served on the Jackson school board. During the Great Depression, the Lehman family served breakfast to many hungry children who walked to the school across the street from the Lehman’s home. Their relatives, Aaron and Celestine Lehman, started a home for elderly women in Jackson, and Aaron was a faithful school board member. In recent years, Josh Wiener and Jonathan Larkin served on the Jackson School Board, expressing their commitment to public education at a time when most whites in the city have left for private schools.

World War II:Jackson Jews were very active in World War II. For instance, Dr. Bernard “Buddy” Alfred Cohen served in the United State Army Dental Corps leading up to and throughout World War II. After being promoted to Captain, he was stationed in Africa and Italy. For his service, he was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy in the Po Valley campaign. During World War II, the women of Beth Israel served on the homefront in numerous ways. Beatrice Gotthelf helped with civilian defense, tracking all the air traffic in and out of Jackson. Jewish soldiers from around the country were stationed in the Jackson area during the war. Offering southern hospitality to these G.I. Jews was a top priority. In 1942, Temple Beth Israel held a Passover Seder for the soldiers. Each Sunday through the end of the war, they hosted social events at the temple. Many single young women attended each week and visit with the soldiers.

The Post War years: Changing economic times: World War II and the later baby boom would prove to be a turning point for the Jackson Jewish community. Mississippi’s overall population peaked with 6, 420 Jews in 1927. By 1960, the number had dropped to 4,000 by 1960. Jackson’s Jewish population more nearly tripled in that period, from 169 residents in 1927 to 420 in 1960. No longer merchants scattered throughout small towns in the state, Mississippi Jews entered the professional ranks in larger cities like which boasted ample amounts of economic opportunities.

The Civil Rights movement: Rabbi Perry Nussbaum and the bombing of Beth Israel:Jackson was a hotbed of political activity leading up to the Civil Rights era. Governor Ross Barnett and other political leaders in the state mobilized to stop court-ordered integration of the public schools. The resulting Civil Rights movement put Mississippi in the national spotlight, and placed the members of Beth Israel and Rabbi Perry Nussbaum in a difficult position. At first, Nussbaum avoided getting involved in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. However, starting in 1955, he began to preach that Judaism teaches that all people, regardless of race, were equal children of God and should therefore be equal under the law. During one year’s Yom Kippur sermon, he attacked the white-citizen’s council and urged congregants not to join the group. Some local Jewish merchants agreed with the rabbi, yet they were too afraid to speak out publicly because of threats of retribution. Many of his white Christian colleagues were forced out of their pulpits by congregations who supported segregation and did not want their minister speaking out on the issue. Nussbaum faced similar pressures from his members, who worried that their outspoken rabbi might lead to an anti-Semitic backlash. When the Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson in 1961, Rabbi Nussbaum began to receive letters from parents and other rabbis inquiring about the condition of their children or congregants who were involved. In response to these concerns, Nussbaum made weekly trips to Parchman State Prison in the Delta,a 260-mile round trip, to visit and lend moral support. After the experience with the Freedom Riders, Nussbaum became more outspoken on Civil Rights and more active in trying to forge an interfaith response to racial injustice. He became a leader of the Mississippi Council of Human Relations and worked with other religious leaders to fight for racial justice. The rabbi’s growing activism drew the attention of the state’s Ku Klux Klan, under the leadership of Sam Bowers, who were in the midst of a campaign of terror across Mississippi. On the night of September 18th, 1967, a group of Ku Klux Klan members planted a bomb that destroyed much of the Rabbi’s office and part of the library at the Temple. Although no one was hurt, this was not the end of the Klan’s attempts to silence Rabbi Nussbaum. Two months later, on November 21, the same group of Klan members bombed Rabbi Nussbaum’s home in the Fondren neighborhood. Though he was home with his wife Arene at the time, no one was hurt. These bombings elicited a strong public reaction. Local newspapers and state officials denounced the attacks and expressed support for Beth Israel. Hundreds of letters from Jews and gentiles around the country came to Rabbi Nussbaum and the congregation, expressing sympathy and support. After the bombing, two Black community leaders went to Nussbaum’s house to express their regrets, but remained in their car to avoid embarrassment for Nussbaum. When Nussbaum saw them, he left a group of whites to shake their hands. Forty-two clergymen and sympathetic citizens joined in a “walk of penance” to Temple Beth Israel, where they held a Thursday night vigil. The event attracted a crowd of 150 people, most of whom were not Jewish. The attacks on the Jewish community galvanized many Jackson whites, who saw that the racial violence they had been tolerating was untenable. In 1968, a full page ad ran in Jackson’s daily newspaper calling for healing the racial tensions in the city and the state. It declared that all citizens regardless of race should receive equal treatment under the law and that there was no place for hatred or violence in Jackson. The ad was signed by numerous civic and business leaders of the city, including most of the city’s Jewish merchants. Since then, members of Beth Israel played a vital part in building a new racially just society in Jackson.

Women and Civil Rights:In the midst of Freedom Summer in 1964, The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) invented a women’s social-change project to support the civil rights movement. It was named Wednesdays in Mississippi (sometimes known by its initials WIMS). The mission of was to use the resources of middle-aged and middle-class Northern women to build bridges of understanding between African-American and white women, develop connections with women of the South and to support these Southern women, whom they saw as the “shock absorbers of change.” Week after week, for two summers, interracial and interfaith teams of Northern women flew into Jackson, Mississippi. The women would arrive in Jackson on a Tuesday and fan out across the state, to towns like Canton and Vicksburg, and fly home from Jackson on a Thursday. Participants worked women to women, encouraging black and white women to communicate their concerns to one another and thereby realize shared common goals for their family and communities. They were a stabilizing force supporting the young civil rights workers, some of whom were their own sons and daughters. Their visits ultimately encouraged white Mississippi women to begin questioning what was happening by reporting what they had seen in Freedom schools and by giving progressive-thinking white Mississippians the opportunity and courage to speak out in support of changes taking place.Southern women too found a way to make a difference. Jackson local Joan Geiger and Bea Gotthelf, established their own local section of the PAW (Panel of American Women), a national organization that promoted the idea of a cosmopolitan society by stressing the common bonds that brought all Americans together. During its two years of existence, the Jackson PAW helped to accelerate the school integration process. “We could go anywhere they asked us to go,” recalled Bea Gotthelf. “And some places were very glad we came and agreed with what we said, and some places were very hostile. The organization’s members traveled around the state to speak. The panels consisted of five or six women – Jewish, Catholics, African American, White Protestant and occasionally Asian America – and a moderator. Each woman spoke about her experiences with the effects of prejudice; then the moderator opened the floor to questions from the audience. White panelists in particular talked about how getting to know women of other races changed their opinions about race relations and integration. Bea and her husband were part of the Committee of Concern, an interracial, interfaith group with the goal of raising and managing funds and equipment to rebuild burned churches in the Jackson and Hattiesburg areas. Their pamphlet read:We feel that these attacks are attacks on all house of worship, on religion itself, indeed upon our Constitutional guarantees to assemble and worship. We accept the losses and suffering as our own.Threats against them and other members abounded. Before one meeting at an episcopal church, they received a phone call that they better disband because the police were on their way. Bea believed that the White Citizens council had tapped their phone. Bea recounted her husband receiving calls from segregationists concerned that he had an employee active in the civil rights movement. They demanded that he fire him, and he refused saying he was a good employee and did not deserve that sort of treatment. They told him he would be sorry for taking this stand. One night, when her son did not come home after a date, she feared the absolute worst. Another young Jackson man, on his way to teach at a black school had been beaten senselessly by white segregationists. Fortunately for her, he was just being a careless teenager and not a victim of violence like others in the Jackson community. She said when her son came home, she was in hysterics. “My son had never seen me cry before…and it made an impression on him that in those times, he had to be more careful.Eventually, Jackson PAW member Elie Crystal became President of the Mississippians for Public education in the late 1960s. Jews were quite active in this organization. She helped draft legislation to restore mandatory attendance laws. Although unsuccessful in that attempt, she was successful in resisting a proposed $12 million cut in public education, which the state legislature claimed was a justifiable response to declining enrollment. She remained president of Missippians for Public Education until it disbanded in the 1970s.

Recent History:After the trauma of the bombings, Beth Israel Jews became more engaged in the larger community, particularly through interfaith efforts. When a newly formed Baptist church needed a place to hold services, Beth Israel allowed the group to use their old synagogue free of charge, which resulted in a long friendship. Rabbi Nussbaum initiated an interfaith Thanksgiving service in 1968 with various congregations. In 1974, Beth Israel sisterhood hosted a panel of women from twenty-five different local churches to talk about their different faiths to educate for tolerance and understanding. Because all of Jackson’s pre-school programs were church-based, the leaders of Beth Israel decided to establish their own pre-school in 1975. Although the school was housed in the synagogue it was in fact a secular school, the only secular pre-school at the time. Over time, it became known as one of the best and most diverse preschools in the city.Several Jews were dedicated to preserving public education. Beth Orlansky, Macy Hart, and other Jewish parents created Parents for Public Schools. This group of committed parents put their collective weight behind their public schools by refusing to engage in the “white flight” so prominent at the time. By enrolling their children in the local public schools and demanding higher standards and better resources for all students, the group created a movement. After the formation of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson, other cities expressed interest in the movement, and the National Office of Parents for Public Schools was founded in Jackson in 1991. Orlansky eventually served as president of the Jackson chapter and president of the national board. Jackson resident Josh Weiner served as the second national presidents and Macy Hart was treasurer of the national organization for years. When her sons were in school, Beth Orlansky made a point of visiting public schools to educate non-Jews about Jewish holidays. She brought apples and honey for the Jewish New Year, dreidels for Chanukah, and matzo for Passover. These outreach efforts paid off when classmates came to her son’s defense after one of her son’s classmates said something derogatory about him.Starting in the 1980s, some Jewish families began to keep kosher homes. Sheila Rubin, who moved to Jackson with her family in 1984, kept her home kosher by buying kosher meat imported from Chicago by Irv Feldman, then proprietor of the Old Tyme deli. Feldman offered this service at no extra charge. With kosher meat available in New Orleans and Memphis, several more families began keeping kosher as well.

Looking towards the future: Jackson and the rise of the New South.Jackson’s Jewish population continues to grow. Today, there are over 600 Jews in the Jackson area and new families continue to move to Mississippi’s capital. Many of these Jackson residents are drawn to the city by job opportunities at the medical center, local colleges, or state government. Jackson Jewish residents are further welcomed by a Whole Food’s market that offers kosher options, and groups dedicated to cultivating social activities for new transplants. Since 2002, audiences throughout Central Mississippi have enjoyed the Jewish Cinema South Jackson’s Film Festival, a partnership between Beth Israel Congregation, the Student Culture Organization at Millsaps and the Goldring/Woldernberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Jewish Cinema South was created by the ISJL to provide a regional network of film festivals that highlight the Jewish experience. Over the years, the Jackson Jewish Film Festival has showcased Israeli and Jewish-themed independent films from major Jewish film festivals around the world. In 2012, Beth Israel Congregation and the Student Culture Organization at Millsaps College joined together to sponsor a new film festival, Jewish Cinema Mississipi. A once modest community now thrives and serves as an example of what Jewish life in an increasingly urban South will look like in the coming years.

Profiles in courage: Celeste Orkin:Isidore Lehman’s daughter Celeste Orkin was committed to preserving Jewish life in the Deep South. Celeste Lehman Orkin helped found the youth movement for Jewish children in the area in the 1950s. Orkin had connections to other congregations throughout the state and region through her involvement with sisterhood. By the early 1950s, she and other parents had created a statewide network of youth groups called Mississippi Temple Teens. Eventually, the group grew to encompass Memphis and Arkansas. By the 1960s, the group became a part of the Reform Jewish Movement’s National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY), gaining the name SoFTY (Southern Federation of Temple Youth), and now included Louisiana as well.Celeste Orkin served as president of the fledgling organization, known as the Camp Association of Southern Temples, or CAST, which eventually became the Henry S. Jacobs camp. The camp has had a significant impact on Jewish religious practice in the region. For over 45 years, Jacobs Camp has served a region that does not have a single large Jewish community. Many of its campers come from small cities and towns. For them, Jacobs Camp is a Jewish oasis. It provides a Jewish world that just does not exist for most campers during the rest of the year. And with several small congregations closing, Jacobs Camp has remained a center of Jewish life in Mississippi and beyond.

Profiles in courage: Ernst Borinksi: Professor Ernst Borinski, a German-Jewish Holocaust refuge, came to Jackson to teach at Tugaloo, a historically black college. After he arrived in the United States, he was inducted into the United States army in 1941. In the army, Borinski served in North Africa, primarily as an interpreter. He returned to the United States in 1944, and was posted at Fort Dix in New Jersey and continued his work as an interpreter until his honorable discharge in 1945. Following his discharge, Borinski enrolled in graduate study in sociology at the University of Chicago, receiving his Masters in Sociology in 1947. In that same year, he accepted a position as a teacher of sociology at Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Madison County, Mississippi.While at Tougaloo, he worked behind the scenes and utilized the academy’s resources and his status as an ‘outside’ to contribute to undermining Mississippi’s racial status quo. During the 1950s and 1960s, Borinski regularly organized meetings between black and white groups in defiance of racial segregation. He frequently spoke at Millsaps College, a historically white institution in Jackson not far from Tougaloo College's campus. He sought to ensure that students understood their constitutional rights as American citizens and supported them as they involved themselves in the civil rights struggle. Among his student advisees was Joyce Ladner, an American civil rights activist, author, civil servant and sociologist. Ladner and her sister, Dorie, organized civil rights protests alongside Medgar Evers and other students from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during her time as a student at Tougaloo.As a consequence of his activities, Borinski was the subject of investigation by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. He continued to teach until his death in 1983. He advised many successful students which helped Tougaloo College to produce six Danforth Fellows and three honorable mentions, nine Woodrow Wilson Fellows, and several Ford Fellows.

Profiles in Courage: Manny CrystalBorn in Passaic, New Jersey, Manny moved to Jackson when he was ten years old, and fell in love with the South. After graduating from the University of Iowa, he returned to Jackson with his new bride Elaine Gradinger, a native of Waterloo, Iowa.Manny joined his father and uncle in the small family scrap iron business, Jackson Iron & Metal. Through Manny’s untiring efforts, the business flourished and expanded to encompass several other enterprises. He acquired the Rocket Manufacturing Company as well as a tractor parts company. Still a family-run business today, Jackson Iron & Metal owns several scrap metal yards across the South. Manny became a successful and respected business leader in Jackson, and often offered advice and funding to aspiring entrepreneurs in the area. He served on the boards of the Institute of Scrap Iron & Steel and the Isle of Capri Casinos.Manny’s business success was matched by his generosity. As a young adult, Manny chose to get involved in his community during a time of social turmoil. An active member of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation, Manny was serving as its president when its synagogue was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967. Manny’s leadership helped guide Jackson’s Jewish community through this frightening time. As a relatively young man, Manny emerged as a national Jewish leader, serving as president of the Mississippi B’nai B’rith in 1960 and on the board of the United Jewish Appeal, which raises money for Jewish causes in America and abroad. Manny was an ardent supporter of the state of Israel, traveling many times to the country and serving as a national board member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He also served on the board of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life and the Mississippi Holocaust Commission.Manny believed strongly in his responsibility to serve the larger community. His warm and gracious personality enabled him to touch and influence people throughout society. He and his wife Elaine helped push for racial reconciliation during the Civil Rights Movement, and he served on the board of Tougaloo College. He became very involved in state politics, funding several aspiring candidates for public office. Throughout his life, Manny worked to improve Jackson, and spent several years on the board of the Jackson Redevelopment Authority. He was a significant sponsor of Jackson’s cultural institutions, and served on the boards of the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Mississippi Opera, and New Stage Theater. Manny was instrumental in helping to relocate New Stage to its current location. Through much of his civic involvement, Manny worked alongside his devoted life partner, Elaine.

Famous Jacksonians:Edward Cohen, who had Jewish roots on both sides of his family, was born on July 3, 1948, inJackson, Mississippi. Coming of age during the Civil Rights movement, he went to segregated schools and had a hard time being accepted by others. He started writing short stories at the age of fifteen. He also practiced law for five years. As a child, he worked in his family's clothing store that catered to blacks He married in 1988. His college years were spent at the University of Miami, which had a large Jewish student body. Many Jewish students felt he was too Southern which prompted him to write The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi.It took Cohen about one year to write this book before it was published by the University Press of Mississippi in 1999. Cohen was formerly head writer and executive producer at Mississippi Educational Television, where he wrote several award winning PBS documentaries, including "Hanukkah" and "Passover" with Ed Asner and "Good Mornin' Blues" with B.B. King.

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Jackson in 1868:“Letter to the Editor.” The American Israelite, Oct. 16, 1868Although sufficient in number (the author mentions 50) to have advances as rapidly as other of our coreligionists dwelling in places of lesser population, yet owing to the discontent and to the want of harmony, we are a disunited instead of a united congregation, to which fact we may attribute the failure of our repeated efforts to build a suitable house of worship that it may stand as a monument, and demonstrate wherever the sons of Israel dwell, be it in the loftiest place and gayest of the larger cities or in the humblest hamlet, they will adhere to the faith inherited from their forefathers.

To the honor of our Christian fellow-citizens be it said that they would gladly contribute their part in order that we may be represented alike with other denominations but alas! The different nations of Europe have too many representatives here who are contending too patriotically (?) for their nationality, and while between Bavarians and Polanders too wide a difference exists, the latter being in the minority, the former have it pretty much their own way. We have therefore, two other factions, the ante bellum and the “since the war” residents, the former claiming the more entitled to the “blessed privileges” of a long residence in the State of Mississippi, consequently one portion of our Jewish citizens do entirely abstain from the management appertaining to the business of the congregation, and, of course, the work of progress is altogether paralyzed. However about a year ago a school-house was built, in when young Israel may be taught the words of Moses, and at the same time to make it answer to hold divine service in during holidays. In the absence of a regular Hazan. Mr. Loeb Hurst, our worthy President, with his gifted tenor, officiated during the recent holidays (Minhag Ashkenes prevailing) to the satisfaction of the entire congregation, also Mr. Eeigenbaum, but lately from Europe, and teacher in the congregational school, delivered several lectures about the meaning of the holidays with credit to himself and they were duly appreciated by his hearers.….I hope that the days may not be far from distance when the congregation of Jackson will be united as one man, and erect an edifice in which to worship the Most High according to the doctrines you so devotedly advocate, and that the time will come when national and sectional prejudices will be bound in oblivion, when those who still fancy to pursue the mode of worship found expedient centirues ago, will give way to Minhag America, and subscribe it upon our banner, then, I think, will be unity and harmony in the now disunited ranks of Israel. Questions for consideration:Describe the significance of the factions described by the author existed within the Jackson Jewish community: ·“the different nations of Europe have too many representatives here who are contending too patriotically? For their nationality, and while between Bavarians and Polanders woo wide a difference exists, the latter being in the minority, the former have it pretty much their own way.”·“the antebellum and the ‘since the war’ residents, the former claiming the more entitled to all the ‘blessed privileges’ of a long residence in the State of Mississippi, consequently one portion of our Jewish citizens do entirely abstain from the management appertaining to the business of the congregation, and of course, the work of progress is altogether paralyzed.What does the author’s preference for the Minhag America say about the direction he hopes the community will pursue?